Alien moth still in Yorktown

YORKTOWN -- The Indiana Department of Natural Resources is planning to drop bacteria from a crop duster airplane onto trees in several suburban neighborhoods again this year to re-treat an infestation of gypsy moths.

Brought to the United States from Europe more than a century ago, the insect is one of the most destructive pests of hardwood forests and urban landscapes in the nation, according to DNR.

Urban concerns include dead limbs and trees, the cost of tree removal, the nuisance caused by caterpillars and their droppings, and skin and respiratory irritation from caterpillar hairs.

"Normally, we don't have to come back," said Scott Kinzie, a DNR nursery compliance officer. "We think the wind blew a few caterpillars outside the treatment block. The wind is how they move naturally. They put silk threads out and are carried by the wind."

DNR last spring sprayed a biological insecticide -- Btk, or Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacterium found naturally on leaves and in soil -- over 300 acres of Forest Hills, Finnlandia, Western Hills and West Acres.

This year's treatment area will expand to 525 acres.

Last year, Bob Beavers, president of Forest Hills Neighborhood Association, said DNR's solution seemed to be a "very safe" way to prevent the loss of oak trees in the heavily wooded subdivisions.

After the 2007 treatment, Kinzie found gypsy moth egg masses on two separate trees near Nebo and Isanogel roads. He also found four moths in a trap near that intersection and six moths in a trap on Stockport Road.

The Yorktown infestation is an isolated outbreak far out ahead of the expanding front in northern Indiana from which the insect is slowly spreading.

The bug could have been transported to Yorktown on a car, boat, trailer or a bundle of firewood. Females will lay eggs on almost anything, including car bumpers.

The pest, which has few natural enemies in the United States, was accidentally released in 1869 by a scientist from Medford, Mass., who was unsuccessfully breeding the insect for silk production. Since then, the gypsy moth's range has been slowly spreading and devastating forests. In its caterpillar stage, the moth has a big appetite for the leaves of oak trees and other plants.